Hello and welcome to the Conference Championship edition of 'The Lo Down'. It has been quite an emotional weekend for football fans especially if you belong to the Ravens Nation. Anyway more about the games later but first I wanted to cover something that happened off the field that I have neglected so far during the playoffs.
In the last few weeks it has transpired that one of my favourite Notre Dame players 'Manti Te'o' was apparently making up the story of having a dead girlfriend. The story was that Te'o nan and girlfriend passed away in the space of a couple of days which left him devastated and destroyed. It has now been brought to light that the lady in question is alive and well and that Te'o claims to be the victim of online fraud.
I can sympathise with Te'o if this is true as like him I have fallen victim to this myself with the only difference being that it did not cost me my reputation but a lot of money that I don't have. When you are in a position where you feel so lonely you twill urn to any thing or anyone pretending to care about how you feel and are easily drawn in to these scams. On the other hand if this was all a plot to gain the sympathetic vote to try and win the heisman trophy and also get a high draft pick with a big pay check, then Mr Te'o you have crossed the line sir!
I will leave that story there for now as I am sure a lot more will come out in the wash as they say.
I can sympathise with Te'o if this is true as like him I have fallen victim to this myself with the only difference being that it did not cost me my reputation but a lot of money that I don't have. When you are in a position where you feel so lonely you twill urn to any thing or anyone pretending to care about how you feel and are easily drawn in to these scams. On the other hand if this was all a plot to gain the sympathetic vote to try and win the heisman trophy and also get a high draft pick with a big pay check, then Mr Te'o you have crossed the line sir!
I will leave that story there for now as I am sure a lot more will come out in the wash as they say.
Okay so lets get back to the first championship match of the weekend which was the San Francisco 49ers at the Atlanta Falcons in the Georgia Dome. Going into the game I had a few questions in my head that I could not wait to see unfold. Would Tony Gonzalez finally make a superbowl or could Colin Kaepernick reproduce his form against the Packers to see the 49ers home.
In the first quarter it was Atlanta who again shot out of the blocks like a cannon and left the 49ers defence searching for answers. The first score came on a 46 yard pass from Matt Ryan to Julio Jones. Jones had just been left wide open thanks to an obvious blown coverage by San Francisco. It was a sign of things to come as by the end of the first quarter Julio Jones had over 100 receiving yards and a touchdown, Also in the first quarter San Francisco could not move the ball going four and out each time which led to Atlanta scoring field goal to make it 10 nil going into the second quarter.
In the first quarter it was Atlanta who again shot out of the blocks like a cannon and left the 49ers defence searching for answers. The first score came on a 46 yard pass from Matt Ryan to Julio Jones. Jones had just been left wide open thanks to an obvious blown coverage by San Francisco. It was a sign of things to come as by the end of the first quarter Julio Jones had over 100 receiving yards and a touchdown, Also in the first quarter San Francisco could not move the ball going four and out each time which led to Atlanta scoring field goal to make it 10 nil going into the second quarter.
The second quarter also did not start well for the 49ers as they let Atlanta score again on a 20 yard touchdown pass to that man Julio Jones again! At this stage it looked very much like Tony Gonzalez was going to make his first big dance. What happened next was a sign of great coaching from the San Francisco staff as they threw the original game plan out the window and started to get Vernon Davis involved in the passing game. They also managed to utilise the read option offense but not by getting Kaepernick to run, instead they almost used him as a decoy to let Frank Gore run all over the Atlanta defence.
The second quarter was definitely their turning point as they managed to score on a 15 yard run from LaMichael James. This was followed up by another 49ers touchdown, this time it was a four yard pass to Vernon Davis. The second quarter was finished off with a 10 yard Atlanta touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez who was clearly not wanting to be outdone by his San Francisco counterpart! Going into the half the score was 24-14 in favour of Atlanta.
The second quarter was definitely their turning point as they managed to score on a 15 yard run from LaMichael James. This was followed up by another 49ers touchdown, this time it was a four yard pass to Vernon Davis. The second quarter was finished off with a 10 yard Atlanta touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez who was clearly not wanting to be outdone by his San Francisco counterpart! Going into the half the score was 24-14 in favour of Atlanta.
This really set up the second half for me to be a great game and one that could go down to wire and it did not disappoint. The second half saw Atlanta not being able to move the ball and it was the 49ers who scored two unanswered touchdowns courtesy of Frank Gore. The 49ers were now 28-24 up with only a short time left on the clock and Atlanta needing a touchdown to win the game. The crazy thing is that if the score was 27-24 the Falcons would have tied the game on their last drive however as they did need that touchdown they continued to drive for the endzone. The Falcons got so close however it was not meant to be as the 49ers forced them to turn the ball over on downs less than 20 yards from the goalline. San Francisco were victorious 28 – 24 and became the NFC Champions and the first team into Superbowl XLVII.
Okay so before we move onto the AFC championship game I would like to give a shout out too my Buffalo Bills players who have made it to the pro bowl this year and that is CJ Spiller, Kyle Williams and Jarius Byrd.
Now lets get to the AFC championship game between the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots. This was a rematch of last years AFC title match and also was potentially set to be the great Mr Ray Lewis's final game.
The game started in true Baltimore fashion with defence featuring heavily for both teams, so much so that the first quarter ended with the only score being a Patriots field goal. In the second quarter both teams started to find a way to move the ball and it was Baltimore who struck first with a two yard touchdown run by Ray Rice.
The game started in true Baltimore fashion with defence featuring heavily for both teams, so much so that the first quarter ended with the only score being a Patriots field goal. In the second quarter both teams started to find a way to move the ball and it was Baltimore who struck first with a two yard touchdown run by Ray Rice.
In response to this New England started playing more and more no huddle offense and it paid off when they scored on a one yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker. It made a nice change to see Welker making a catch because I am sure this season that I have seen him drop so many passes it's untrue! The Patriots also got the final score of the half which was a 25 yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski. The half time score was 13-7 to the Patriots and strangely much like the first game, the team with the half time lead did not score at all in the second half.
In what proved to be a half dominated by the Ravens defence, Ray Lewis and his warriors shut out Tom Brady and got Brady so frustrated that he even kicked out at Ed Reed during a slide at the end of a run. Joe Flacco was also having an inspired game by throwing three touchdowns in the second half. Flacco threw one to Dennis Pitta and two to Anquan Boldin giving the Ravens a 28 -13 lead.
In what proved to be a half dominated by the Ravens defence, Ray Lewis and his warriors shut out Tom Brady and got Brady so frustrated that he even kicked out at Ed Reed during a slide at the end of a run. Joe Flacco was also having an inspired game by throwing three touchdowns in the second half. Flacco threw one to Dennis Pitta and two to Anquan Boldin giving the Ravens a 28 -13 lead.
This lead proved to be too much for New England and the Ravens finally got their second AFC Championship win. After the game I thought about how fitting it is for one of the greatest players in the game to have his final game on the grandest stage of them all, the superbowl!
You can see highlights of both games by clicking the corresponding pictures below:
You can see highlights of both games by clicking the corresponding pictures below:
Finally I would like to finish off by saying that there will be no blog next week due to the pro bowl however I will be introducing a new feature to the blog moving forwards. My aim is to interview a fan from each of the 32 NFL teams and include one or two of these in the blog each week to give our rookie fans an insight into the passion behind the NFL. If all goes according to plan we have a great start to this with a New England Patriots fan featuring in my Superbowl edition. |
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